Ranatunga quits from Sri Lankan cricket committee

Arjuna Ranatunga, the legendary Sri Lankan captain, has resigned from the Sri Lankan board's high-profile cricket committee following their team's recent dismal performance in India.

Ranatunga's decision came three days after Sri Lanka's tour of India, where they lost the three-Test series 2-0. They had also crashed to a 6-1 defeat to India in the preceding seven-match one-day series.

Ranatunga was heading a committee which involved all past captains."As a person who loves cricket in Sri Lanka I worked hard to execute my responsibility as the chairman of the committee," Ranatunga wrote in a letter to Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC). "It is regretful that the expected outcome was not there. Under these circumstances I am left with no alternative but to resign.

"There were a few things that I wasn't at all happy with during my association with SLC," Ranatunga told AFP, "and I just waited till the team returned from India to hand over my resignation."

Although he didn't outline details of what made him unhappy, it is believed that Ranatunga and his committee had differences of opinion with Jayantha Dharmadasa, the SLC Chairman. Ranatunga's committee was responsible for appointing Tom Moody as coach of the national team in place of his compatriot John Dyson.